


Can snacks protect you from the wrath of an old god?

by LilacEnthusiast



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Body Horror, Dreams and Nightmares, Eldritch Kwami, Gen, Kwami are more otherworldly and dangerous than canon, Mild Blood, slight cosmic horror, slight crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24480136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacEnthusiast/pseuds/LilacEnthusiast
Summary: There’s a lot more to Kwami than meets the eye, and some things are better left unseen. There’s also a reason Kwami have seldom interacted with humans before the creation of the Miraculous.(They were born from the heat of the birth of the earliest stars and the cold of the endless void. Countless worlds have risen and fallen before their timeless gaze)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 69





	Can snacks protect you from the wrath of an old god?

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a quick little one-shot I've written for an AU idea I've had that leans more into the idea of Kwami being ancient supernatural beings with a bit of horror thrown into the mix.

A window hung ajar in its frame, letting the late afternoon sunlight and a light breeze into the otherwise stuffy room. High humidity had left the air feeling hot and sticky that day, with only the occasional breezes providing relief for those in areas not absolutely laden with air conditioning units and fans. Marinette, trying to fan herself off with a stray piece of paper, momentarily contemplated trying to stick her head inside her parent’s freezer unit for a few minutes. Instead, she opted to open her window further and get some cold water. Once she’d gone and gotten a glass of water, she sat down at her desk and pulled out a hefty history textbook.

For a few minutes, Marinette stared blankly down at the textbook in front of her, absentmindedly twirling a pencil between her fingers. With all of her newfound concerns and questions about Miraculous swimming around her head, it felt incredibly difficult to focus on schoolwork. She felt woefully unprepared for being a Guardian, and knew that she’d have to take time to independently study the Miraculous on top of her regular schoolwork. Even though the University application process was a few years away, Marinette was already dreading the extra stress that would add if she didn’t manage to stop Hawkmoth before then. 

Honestly, Marinette thought it was incredibly unfair that Hawkmoth and Mayura had the massive advantage of their miraculous not having a time limit. Sighing and looking up at the Kwami hovering above her, a question unconsciously slipped out of Marinette’s mouth. 

“Hey, Tikki, why is there a de-transformation timer for children but not adults?”

For a moment, Tikki stared silently down at her before floating down and hovering in front of Marinette’s face. After smiling blithely and thinking for a moment, Tikki responded.

“Oh, it’s a safety measure that was put into place to prevent any alterations to your physical and mental development.”

Marientte’s gaze drifted back down to her homework for a moment before snapping back up to Tikki as the tiny creature’s words sunk in. Once she managed to overcome her befuddlement about Tikki’s rather matter-of-fact statement, Marinette stumbled her way through a new question. 

“Ok…. wait… What do you mean by that, Tikki?”

Tikki made some vague gesture with her nubby little limbs and smiled kindly at Marinette while responding.

“Well, every time a mortal uses the powers provided by a Kwami, they’re channeling an immense amount of power through their bodies. Miraculous make sure that mortals can interact with us and use our powers without accidentally harming or permanently altering themselves.”

Upon contemplating this, Marinette nodded pensively, gnawing a bit on the eraser of her pencil.

“I guess that makes sense, considering Plagg’s cataclysm can do so much damage. It’s pretty amazing how Kwami can be both so cute and so powerful at the same time.”

Tikki let out a little giggle and shook her head, as if she found Marinette’s statement oddly amusing before speaking. 

“Silly Marinette, these minuscule forms aren’t what we really look like, the Miraculous just make us look like this, so we don’t frighten people!”

Marinette once again found herself dumbstruck, wondering if the glimmering blue eyes of the Kwami in front of her were even Tikki’s true eyes. Did Tikki even have any eyes? The thought of what Tikki really looked like without the effects of the Miraculous made Marinette shudder. For a brief moment, she could have sworn that she could make out the shadows of many segmented limbs and tendrils against her walls and the reflection of sunlight against massive gossamer-like wings. For a moment she saw an infinite amount of eyes, as deep and as ancient as underwater caverns, staring deep into her soul. The fires of a thousand stars being born in the span of a nano-second burned beneath a chitinous shell, weeping through the cracks. A subconscious part of Marinette's mind cried out in terror and urged her to run, to hide under her covers and forget what she had seen. Then, that moment was gone, and whatever Marinette had seen had been burned from her mind. 

Marinette stared slack-jawed at the air just above the cute projection of what she typically perceived to be “Tikki”, her eyes glazing over. A few seconds passed before Marinette shook herself and responded, not even aware of the time elapsed and no longer remembering the near-incomprehensible form of the ancient being that gave Marinette the power to transform into a superhero. 

“That’s… pretty terrifying. Wait, what happens if a Miraculous breaks?”

A knowing, and perhaps slightly sad smile crossed Tikki’s false features. Marinette was inquisitive, and hopefully that would serve her well. At some point during the conversation, rain clouds had suddenly appeared outside, and small droplets of water were already beginning to fall. Marinette could faintly hear rain splashing into the puddle that was forming on her floor. With a yelp, she scrambled over to her window and slammed it shut. Behind her, Tikki muttered, barely audible against the sound of the rain and the sudden crack of thunder.

“You really, really don’t want to know.”

————

“Fall, my feathers.”

Even after having repeated this process many times before, fear still gripped Nathalie’s heart as the words left her lips. Almost instinctively she squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath.

A flickering light shone so brilliantly before her, that Nathalie could almost make out the shape of the being producing said light through both her eyelids and the tinted glass of her welding mask. A shrill voice cried out from that blinding, unnatural light, grating against Nathalie’s eardrums.

_ “That was so much fun, miss! Sorry about all the magic leakage, though. Check to make sure all of your bones and teeth are in their proper places!” _

Choking back bile, Nathalie hissed harshly through her teeth at the creature before her.

“Will do, Duusu, there’s some salmon waiting in the mini fridge for your.”

It took all of Nathalie’s willpower to keep herself from inhaling. Even with filtration, a mere whiff of those fumes and Nathalie would have unspeakable “gifts” granted to her respiratory system, like gills or a small colony of insects that were poisonous to all but herself. 

_ “WOOOHOOOOO, thank you, miss!!!!” _

Suppressing her disgust, Nathalie tried to ignore the heinous smells and sounds emanating from the general direction of the mini fridge as Duusuu at her fill. No matter what she heard, she could breathe in, and she couldn’t open her eyes.

With trembling and slightly numb hands, Nathalie removed the Peacock miraculous and dropped it into the open metal box in front of her. Once she heard the heavy, lead door of the box automatically slammed shut and locked. A split second later, the room was filled with the sound of air being rapidly sucked up through pipes and rapidly released, ridding the room of that horrid dust.

When Nathalie opened her eyes, a trail of teeth and a viscous glowing blue substance streamed across the floor in the direction of the twisted, charred remains of the mini-fridge. She shook her head and removed her hazmat suit with great care.

Feathers had begun to sprout on the exposed skin of her wrists and ankles. They were a deep navy blue color and seemed to have an iridescent sheen. Nathalie sighed and plucked the various feathers, wincing at the discomfort that was not unlike the feeling of having hairs plucked or pulled. Soon, all of the feathers were removed and Nathalie was burying them in a giant bag full of graveyard dirt. Several strangely colored glowing plants had started sprouting from the dirt. Once she’d finished with the feathers, Nathalie filed down the talons that had been piercing through her latex gloves, after she’d managed to peel off the gloves. 

  
  


Then, Nathalie turned to a concerned looking Gabriel, who was standing behind a layer of lead-lined bullet proof glass. He silently nodded at her, and they simultaneously removed their lead-lined vests, welder’s masks, and helmets. The few bits of hair that hadn’t been covered by the helmets were singed and oozing. Said bits of hair were quickly removed and incinerated. Nathalie sighed and turned to Gabriel, her own words sounding slightly muted and distant. 

“I think we’re going to need to get another layer of lead, sir.”

With a note of primal terror barely concealed in his voice, Gabriel responded.

“True, although my supplier is getting a bit suspicious. I think they’re starting to believe that we’re running a secret nuclear power plant or nuclear weapons production operation.”

A strange, metallic smell filled Nathalie’s nose when she tried to take a deep breath. While the hazardous fumes had been sucked out of the room, it would take several deep cleans to wash the smell out of hair and clothes. 

“Well, it’s better than them suspecting the truth. Can you hand me the salt water?”

With a silent nod, Gabriel grabbed a large spray bottle filled with salt water from a nearby cabinet and tossed it to her.

Nathalie caught the bottle and proceeded to spritz the room and herself while holding her breath. After waiting for a few moments for the mixture to evaporate, Gabriel handed Nathalie her glasses as he spoke to her.

“It seems that you’ve popped a few blood vessels in your eye.”

With an exhausted sigh, Nathalie instinctively clapped a hand over her injured eye, which had a patch of sclera that had become stained red.

“Shit… let’s get X-Rays done in a little while… y’know… to make sure all of our teeth and bones are in the right places.”

Gabriel nodded and walked over to a nearby wall, opening the hatch built into it. From inside the hatch came the intense heat of an incinerator.

They both threw their used gear into the incinerator and watched the flames turn bright blue before slamming the door shut. Later, the ashes would be encased in cement and hidden deep underground. Any hazardous materials still left in the room would be burned and buried as well after they left via an automated system.

They walked out of the room and down a long corridor, which ended in several layers of airtight, sealed doors. Nooroo was hovering silently by the gently glowing touchpad, waiting for them. He stared at them with a gaze that bored deep into their souls. 

At some point, Nooroo had talked, even going out of his way to dissuade Gabriel (and later Nathalie) from using magic in ways that he deeply disapproved of. Now, he merely hovered around Gabriel like a silent spectre. Around the same time Nooroo had fallen silent, Gabriel had started to have recurring nightmares.

Every night, he dreamed of shining, craggy white cliffs against a raging black sea. No matter how hard the waves crashed against the jagged stones of the cliffs, they made no sound. The cliffs seemed to go on infinitely in every direction. If he tried to walk away from the edge of the cliffs and the ocean, he was met by a thick fog that also seemed to go on forever. After a few nights, Gabriel could just barely make out what seemed to be the sound of something soft sliding and slapping against stone. Not long after, he saw something, or rather, many things shuffling towards the cliffs through the fog. Each and every one of them wore a loose, gauzy silver shroud that obscured their entire body. Not a single one of these entities seemed to ever acknowledge Gabriel. It didn’t take long for Gabriel to realize that the sound was many feet or similar appendages moving across the cold, slimy stone beneath them. He did not know of what would happen when the shrouded beings reached the edges of the cliffs, but for some reason the through of those figures being so close to those raging waters filled Gabriel with dread. 

If Nooroo had created these dreams or if his silence was the result of whatever caused them, he likely would never say, at least not to Gabriel or Nathalie. 

Gabriel suppressed the shiver that went down his spine while both he and Nathalie both pointedly ignored Nooroo’s stare. Nathalie carefully typed a code into the numbers displayed on the touchpad, and the doors in front of them opened. Meanwhile, Gabriel took a tissue out of his pocket and placed it over Nooroo’s face, which made it much easier for him to ignore the Kwami.

As Gabriel and Nathalie left the corridor, with Nooroo silently drifting behind them, neither of them openly acknowledged the hairs standing up on their necks and the ever growing feeling of fear that had wormed its way into their minds. Something terrible was going to happen, and they could not quite pinpoint when or how.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
